July23
It’s not coming to the U.S. market, but it is expected to make a big splash in other markets around the world. It’s the Chevrolet Beat — and we’ve got the first image of what appears to be an actual pre-production prototype for the new car, rather than a cobbled together chassis test mule.
Last week, Vice Chariman Bob Lutz said GM would like to be able to sell the Beat in America, but it’s not going to happen. Lutz said that it would be too time consuming and costly to make the Beat compliant with U.S. crash regulations.
The production car stays true to the relatively dramatic concept, which should help set it apart from the competition. Power wise, it is expected to be equipped with a 1.2-liter turbo, and an automatic transmission when it arrives for the 2010-11 model year.
July 23rd, 2008
May 20th, 2008 - Chassis Mule
Concept
I wouldn’t buy this or any other car that shape/style. Every time I see a prius it makes me gag. Why are we being force fed this crap. They don’t have to look this way to be efficient.
I was just reading a bunch of comments about this car, and *poof*, they disappear into thin air. It’s time to call Mulder and Scully to see if they can solve the mystery of disappearing posts.
If I had something this small I’d have to Beat it with a pair of tweezers.
this is another CHEVYWOO yes.
My opinion is that this would be big in the US and well worth the time and money to engineer it to meet our more stringent crash standards.
beatusmongous, I had a post in another story NOT appear after I submitted it. Fortunately (having been through this before), I had copied the text and tried to submit it again. I got a warning telling me it was a duplicate message… but it is still nowhere to be found.
Psiclone, if your posts disappear immediately when you hit “submit”, it is because the f4sc¡sts have programmed the board to automatically omit any posts containing the words c4s¡no, g4mbl¡ng and søc¡al¡sm.
HOly ceap, you’re absolutely right. I just tried typing “soshalizm” but spelled correctly and it deleted it instantly.
I also misspelled crap
johnny….LOL
i think it’s shame the cant bring this into the states. i still dont understand how “difficult” and expensive it would be to meet safety standards though. they bought in the GTO and G8 with relatively unchanged. oh well…
“Lutz said that it would be too time consuming and costly to make the Beat compliant with U.S. crash regulations. ”
My take on this:
It’s not expensive per se, but probably their market research has lead them to believe that they will not sell enough cars to make the changes worth while. With “worth while” I mean “get huuge profits out of it to avoid bankruptcy”…
The concept car looks great, the production car looks like crap. I would like to say that only GM could ruin such a good thing, but Ford is just as capable of taking a gem and turning it into a POS.
that’s not a production car.
There are already several cars in production that look exactly like the Beat and have incredible fuel economy - the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and C2, and Peugeot 106. They’re based on the same chassis and they were everywhere in Europe this summer. If they bring the Aygo to North America the BEat will be DOA.
Im pumped this isn’t Fords vehicle. Thank god we have there verve/fiesta coming soon. Its going to blow this thing away.
Ford will have no problem meeting crash test standards either, they usually do very well in that dept.
GM would rather you buy a full size Impala to get the same safety.
What I want to know is, why GM didn’t engineer this car to meet US crash regulations in the first place? That way, if the market were to demand such a vehicle, they could start selling them right away, instead of waiting until the next redesign. I would think that this would be a better business plan, you know, having the cars that the consumer demands, at the time they are demanding it. Not five years later. I was just wondering!
Is it me or it is akin to current Fit, albeit with missing pair of doors? It is a typical Daewwo knock off Japanese mini cars and I am not sure it will sell even in Korea (place of origin). Ironically, most of new (even copycat) ideas are coming to GM via Korea now. Is there mandatory retirement age for failing automotive executives?
When Lutz isn’t whining about fuel standards, he whines about safety regulations. Amazingly, his competition apparently doens’t have these problems. Size does not equal safety. When gas hits $5/gallon and Chevy dealers have a 200+ day backlog of Suburbans, perhaps the cluebird will sh1t on his head.
Well, that would help if cluebird was size of an elephant, maybe.
i think a version of the chevy beat concept car is pictured in the background of the corvette concept pictures taken from the transformers 2 set
Wow… the concept looked interesting… the real version looks like crap. Why can’t Chevy make a competent small car? We are still stuck with that POS the Aveo over here.
the dont understand the mindset of alot of americans that size means safety. It makes no sense whatsoever
I don’t get it… Didn’t the American people vote on which car should make it into production? Or was that a global effort? So then oh btw the people have spoken…. And oh well the U.S isn’t getting it…
Did American people ask GM for Aztec?
Good point Xyunya… I’ve gotta ask this though… are American crash standards really that rediculously high compared to the rest of the world?
i doubt it. EURONCAP has the highest standards. when u see how well small cars can perform in it , it proves the point
They should take their “BEAT” and stick it “UP!” there a** , im sick of hybrids and crossovers.
You guys made some good points in the “why not make it have US safety standards to begin with” area. Heck, no one can put out a car unless it fits California emission standards, so why not have US safety standards and California emission standards on all cars so that they can be sold anywhere? I’m sure no one wants polluting and unsafe cars everywhere.
However, R&D and cost come to mind as to the “why not”. In my opinion, though, it would be more cost effective to make a car have the same features everywhere, and not select items in certain places. That way, you don’t have multiple assembly lines for one car. Anyone else have similar thoughts?
gambling
that works, but cäsinö and söciälïsm do not.
A bunch of fückïn göddämmned cömmünïst söcïälïst fäggöty shïtförbräïned mäggöts must run LLN.
LMAO Mayer! Those damned fascists! Sons of perdition!
Looks like a modified Daewoo Matiz to me. I hope this is just a test mule, ’cause if they keep those f*cking ugly rear lights they won’t sell many.
I have a great idea: Swap this for the Aveo. But like stated, we already have a ton of these cars around.
How about this and less Enclave, Acadia, etc.
CTS wagon? Coupe?
Get your damned priorities straight GM
1c3d0g, the funny part is that the center group of photos are clearly labeled “chassis mule”, which means the body is probably the existing Daewoo Matiz.
I wonder when GM is announcing the Beat Z28 version?